Once called the dirtiest city in India, Surat achieved a remarkable transformation in less than two years after the plague of December 1994 owing to improved municipal management and strong leadership.

The Navi Mumbai Airport Influence Notified Area, or NAINA, was created after the Ministry of Environment and Forest lay down 53 conditions to be met before it granted clearances for the Navi Mumbai Airport. Among them was that Navi Mumbai’s development plan had to be revised to avoid haphazard growth around the airport. In January 2013, the Maharashtra government appointed the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) as the planner for NAINA. A swathe of towns and villages from districts far from Navi Mumbai found themselves bundled into a revised Navi Mumbai development plan under NAINA, which is envisioned as a smart city.

The Smart Cities Mission plan submitted by the Pune Municipal Corporation aims to provide toilet facilities for all, door-to-door garbage collection in the next two years, 100 per cent municipal solid waste segregation and processing and zero-garbage wards.

Mumbai-based Sampurn (e)arth Environment Solutions, a social impact startup, has raised about Rs 1 crore in its first round of funding from Intellecap Impact Investment Network (I3N) and a Zurich-based family office fund.

Kadanad Panchayat in Ooty Panchayat Union in the Nilgiris district has set a welcome precedent in waste management sector by launching a set of initiatives in segregated waste collection and local processing of waste.

Aurangabad Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar informed that a marathon meeting with the technical evaluation committee and civic staffers was held with an aim to commission 50 CCTV cameras at 30 crucial locations in the city by October 31.

Weather forecasting in India has improved with new technology, but accuracy in predicting weather events remains elusive, adding uncertainty to the country’s economic planning. An accurate forecast is critical for – monsoon months (June to September) for more than 230 M Indian farmers to cultivate the country’s rain-fed agriculture and year-round for other weather-sensitive businesses such as transportation, energy, and construction.